eamon javers in washington with who's asking the questions now. >> maria, it's one of the tri y trickiest questions here in washington, when does advance information about something that congress or regulatory agencies is about to do become insider trading? last week we saw "the wall street journal" report on a new example of this, when a political intelligence firm here in washington sent a tip to its clients that there was a change coming in the way medicare and medicaid pay out benefits. that caused a spike in health insurance stocks. take a look at this chart. and what you'll see is within about 15 minutes of that information going out to the clients, those stocks spiked. that has got senator chuck grassley upset. he says it's unfair, because the people who got the information ahead of time got an unfair advantage and he was grilling today the head of medicare and medicaid. take a listen to the exchange. >> wrong and quite possibly illegal and i hope you agree that ultimately you're responsible. what are you going to do to hold somebody accountable for this

for "nighting business report," i'm eamon javers. >>> from state finances to personal ones, tax time can have a significant impact on your bottom line. a positive one if you are getting a refund. refunds sent to more than 78 million taxpayers, totaling over 270 billion this tax season. sharon epperson on where taxpayers are putting money this year. lucky for those who are getting refunds. >> a lucky day for that. >> tell us what is the average refu refund? how much money are we talking about? >> we're talking about the average refund for 2013, as of april 5, $2,755. this compared to $2,800 last year and $2,900 in 2011. average refund is coming down, we are looking at a lot of people happy to get that omt of money. >> why is it coming down? what are people doing with it? >> it's coming down perhaps because a lot of people who are underemployed not earning the same amount, not getting the same refunds. but we're not all the way through this filing season and through the refund season yet, and those 2012/2011 numbers for the full year. maybe big checks waiting to come in. >> what are th

for "nightly business report," i'm eamon javers. >>> a turbulent day for airlines. delta warned it expects revenues will come lower than forecast for the first quarter. it said march performance was weaker than expect. delta still expects a profitable quarter, but shares were down 8%. the other airlines also lost altitude on the delta warning. jetblue, southwest, united, and usair all off between 4 to 5%. on the other side of the airport, hertz raised its three-year guidance saying total revenues would increase by as much as 14% by the year 2015. hertz shares jumped almost 7% to $23 and change. the stock is up almost 44% this year. >>> jcpenney's board cut executive -- chief executive ron johnson's 2012 total compensation to $1.9 million. in 2011, johnson's compensation was $59.3 million. that is a big pay cut. over the past year, and here is why, jcpenney shares have lost 59% of their value. today closing down more than 1 1/2% at $14.55. >>> medicare's advantage plans will not be as costly to health insurers as expected, and that group faced the market today. unite

eamon javers is our watchdog and he is keeping an eye out on where fraud might be lurking. i know you have been studying this for a while. what are you finding? >> if you're an investor, shareholder or a tax holder, there are people out there every day looking to separate you from your money. now we're going to tell you who they are, bringing you the latest in alleged scams, frauds, and a abuse. think of it as a regular reminder to watch your money. this week we've got two-stories that could have affected you if you've got a mortgage or if you pay federal taxes. just today, for example, the consumer financial protection bureau announced four enforcement actions to end what it said were improper kickbacks paid by mortgage brokers to mortgage lenders. the proposals would require four national insurance companies to pay $15 million in penalties. >> so eamon, what did they allegedly do wrong there? tell us how this whole thing unfolded. >> well, the cfpb says the insurance firms provided kickbacks to lenders by purchasing what were essentially worthless reinsurance that was des

our eamon javers is at the first major outdire event since boston. we will go live there. >> the day after the terror attacks, they're holding a major parade right here in downtown washington, d.c. i'll tell you how it's going when we come back on "power lunch." everybody has different investment objectives, ideas, goals, appetite for risk. you can't say 'one size fits all'. it doesn't. that's crazy. we're all totally different. ishares core. etf building blocks for your personalized portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. omnipotent of opportunity. go national. go like a pro. [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and

now, cnbc's eamon javers has new details about this grisly story. gain, good evening, eamon. >> good evening, larry. the new details are that the law and lobbying firm green and troutwig has received and is responding to a subpoena from the s.e.c. in this matter. they are involved in a situation here, because the allegation is that a separate firm called hight securities sent a tip to wall street clients that changes were coming to medicare. there was an employee involved in the chain of communication of e-mails of some of this information. now greenbergtroutwig also saying today they're going to get out of the business of so-called political intelligence. that's when firms in washington tip off hedge funds and others on wall street about things that are happening in washington. here's the statement from greenbergdrawer i go. we have concluded that providing government services in an entity may lead to misunderstanding and unintended use of services, even when compliant with legal and ethical standards. hight is no longer a client and we will not rep

eamon javers is in edison, new jersey, with all the details. 't know all this talk of giving someone advantage over the other, i thought it was supposed to be a level playing field. >> reporter: let me give you a perspective on that 4 milliseconds. that's faster than the human eye can blink. it takes about 300 milliseconds to blink your eye. it's faster than the human thought. but this consortium put up behind us and transmitting new signals to the nasdaq in new jersey say they can shave 4 milliseconds off the transmission time and that's faster than the speed of light as it travels over a fiber optic cable. why is that? a fiber optic cable is disadvantaged because it's got to travel with the contours of the earth, which is a curve. this technology goes in a much straighter line, so it comes much closer to the approximate speed of light itself, which albert einstein said is the fastest speed that anything can go. critics say all of this is too fast. it's playing into the hands of high-frequency traders that are trading faster with algorithmic co

eamon javers with the story. eamon? >> hi, maria. washington is definitely looking into this, but as you say, a lot of questions do remain here. folks in washington believe that the problem here was on the equity side of the cboe, and that puts it squarely in the per view of the s.e.c. in terms of the regulator. what's the s.e.c. doing about it? they gave us this statement, which doesn't tell us a whole heck of a lot. they say, as is our practice, we are monitoring the situation. now, of course, the s.e.c. wouldn't be able to give us the details of any investigation that is ongoing, but that's what we know so far from washington's perspective here, which isn't much, maria. >> it seems like there's been a lot of issues lately, right? how are regulators deal with all of this? >> it's a lot on their plate. they're drinking from a fire house. particularly just this week, you've already seen the s.e.c. being drawn into this ap twitter hack situation. they've got to investigate that. and at some point, you know, regulators can't investigat

eamon javers has if latest on -- has the latest on an insider bribery case. please stay with us.evolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow, but at xerox we've embraced a new role. working behind the scenes to provide companies with services... like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. reducing document costs by up to 30%... and processing $421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. how's that for an encore? with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> >>> a former coo of office depot has been charged with insider trading and ralph lauren settled the bribery case. i'mch javers joins us with all the details. good evening. >> good evening, larry, the sec charged corporate executive mark begelman with insider trading based on information he learned from the professional world president's organization. the sec said beg elman a chief operating officer at home depot gleaned information about the pending merger from a member of the group and purchased 25,000

eamon javers joins us now with the sordid details. >> reporter: what a coincidence. the timing of this story comes at the same time the government accountability office the gao here in washington released a new report on what's called the political intelligence industry and it's those firms that mine washington agencies, congress, all of the federal government apparatus here for details that they can then feed to traders on wall street to get ahead of the announcements of major information. let me bring the highlights. gao finding that no laws or ethics rules specifically govern the sale of information by these political intelligence firms but they also said the disclosure of material nonpublic governmental information could be insider trading and they said members of congress could use the speech or debate privilege of the united states constitution as a defense here. now the story that was broken in the "wall street journal" this morning was of a firm called height securities which got information in advance in a change of medicare payment policy on monday, release

before we get into dunkin brands in just a moment, let's get to eamon javers in d.c. with more perspective on what's going on. >> well, f-soc just finished up a meeting here and at that meeting, they sort of laid out for you the seven things that can keep you awake at night in global financial markets right now. now, remember, the f-soc is an organization that was created to go out and find the systemic risk in the system and find things to worry about. in their new 2013 report, which they just authorized a few minutes ago, they lay out things you should worry about. let me give you some of the highlights. they talk about operational risks that can cause major disruptions to the financial system. they also talk about the vulnerability to runs and wholesale funding markets that can lead to destabilizing fire sales in the words of chairman ben bernanke, who spoke at the meeting just a few moments ago. the housing finance system, that continues to rely heavily on government and agency guarantees, while private mortgage activity remains muted. also to worry about a couple

we want to get to eamon javers. we have a statement from the white house. are you hearing there? >> reporter: we're still waiting on the official u.s. government federal response here to this incident that took place in boston. but we are told by a white house official that the president has been notified about the attack, apparent attack in boston with those bombs going off. the administration is in contact with the state and local authorities and the president has directed his administration, we are told, to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and the response. but the word is getting out here in washington. about 3:46 p.m. this afternoon, senator pat toomey told fellow senators on the senate floor that there had been some kind of an incident in boston. so word is spreading here. we've reached out to the fbi, to the white house, to the department of justice, homeland security and other officials here in washington. we have not had official comments from any of those yet. but you can imagine, maria, that a massive federal role in t

cnbc's eamon javers joining us now with more of the details. eamon? >> good evening, brian.he "washington post" reported this story this morning. let me walk you through the details of what they say is a campaign by obama administration officials to push banks to loosen their lending standards when it comes to home mortgages. the "post" saying that the obama administration wants those banks to begin to lend again post-crisis. they say they've ratcheted the standards up too high and they want the banks to use those taxpayer-backed programs that enable them to do it and they're also urging the department of justice to reassure banks they won't be subject to prosecution or investigation if they move toward lending to people with lower credit scores. apparently, obama administration officials now feeling that some of the bank loan requirements of 20% down and near pristine credit scores are too high and that's hurting the housing recovery as a lot of people just simply can't get credit in this market. and brian, i've got to tell you, the interesting thing about this story is the

and eamon javers joins us live from washington with more. eamon?onitor throughout the day for new developments. but let me tell you exactly what when he know as of so far. they say it contained a white granular substance. the letter was addressed to senator roger wicker, a republican of mississippi. and the preliminary tests indicate that the substance here is ricin. the letter was postmarked in memphis, tennessee. didn't have any return address on it. but otherwise, officials say it was not otherwise suspicious here. the senate mail service has been suspended. they're going to go back and do a very detailed look at exactly what this substance is. guys, i've got to tell you, there's been a history of false positive tests, at least initially for this substance ricin. and of course, this potential attack, if that's what it is definitely reminds us of those days after september 11th up on capitol hill where you're dealing with the anthrax attacks in capitol hill and media organizations across the country. this is something that could be very, very sca

as eamon javers said, this tweet when it came out, we were like, this doesn't look real, the language doesn't appear right. in i hacked into a big company's twitter feed, and i put out a tweet that looked real, used corporate-speak, maybe said we are missing earnings, and the stock tanks, that company may not discover that for a few minutes, and mom and pop are getting wiped out. if they sell and it's fake, how do they get their money back? you wonder if the s.e.c. maybe needs to rethink this. >> it's worse than that. you can set up a fake twitter account in the name of the company. the company may not know it exists. that gets picked up on the real twitter account or other people's tweets and has the same practical effect. >> i would really like to know going forward whether or not it has any impact on how much we use social media. i don't know if this is in your jurisdiction, but based on your experience where people are involved in some kind of activity, and then there's multiple accounts, say credit card fraud. i've been a victim of credit card fraud, i still use my credit cards d

last week eamon javers, on policy changes that had been leaked to a wall street political intelligence firm down in d.c. it moved the stocks. it was a case where insiders had access to information, and they profited from it. how the senate financial committee might change the rules of the game. eamon? >> it's one of the trickiest questions here in washington facing investors. when is advanced information about something that congress or government regulators might do actually inside information in terms of trading on stocks that will move as a result of that news? last week "wall street journal" first reported an incident involves insurance stocks that moved based on a proposed change at the centers for medicare and medicaid services. today senator chuck grassley was grilling the proposed new head of that entity called cms. he said he hopes that she understands these kinds of leaks are her responsibility. take a look at the exchange. >> it is wrong and quite possibly illegal. i hope you agree that ultimately you're responsible. what are you going to do to hold somebody accountable for

eamon javers has the latest on the ricin scare. >> reporter: we've had a flurry of suspicious packagets in washington here today. earlier today, the hallway right behind me here in the russell senate office building was actually closed off and a bomb squad moved in to investigate a suspicious package that was there. also, staffers received an e-mail alert, not to go anywhere near the third floor of the hart senate office earlier today because of a suspicious package incident over there. some members of congress reporting suspicious letters, including senator carl levin, who said that a letter was delivered to his saginaw, michigan, office. he said in a statement a minute ago that a staffer there has been sent to the hospital on a precautionary basis. that staffer hasn't developed any symptoms of ricin poisoning. and then, of course, over at the white house today, they said they had a suspicious package incident of their own as well. here's press secretary jay carney earlier today. >> there was a letter sent to, addressed to the president, at an off-site mail facility. it was noticed t

♪ >>> i'm eamon javers in washington with more on this breaking news stories, involving the a.p., theuesday the twitter account has been suspended following a hack, and says it's working to correct the issue. also in this story about the associated press now, we're seeing that they're saying that the attack here came after hacker made repeated attempts to steal the password of a.p. journalist that is led to the twitter account sending out an erroneous report that there had been explosions at the white house and that president barack obama was injured. guys, i should tell you our social media team here at nbc has done some digging, they find the twitter account has 1.9 followers as of today, and this tweet in question was up for at least four minutes. so a fairly long time in the twitter-sphere. as we had at the white house briefing, which happened just moments later, the reporter who is traditionally the first person to get a question at the briefing immediately cleared this up. i believe we have tape of that moment. if we have tape, let's play it now. and i'm told we don't have the t

. >> eamon javers reporting from washington for us. >>> the white house making a new pitch with top business leaders to hire american veterans. the plan and ceo of u.p.s. next on "power lunch," and steve leaseman on the cnbc fed survey, our slice of the market, steve. >> i'm sorry to pour cold water on the eabu yen markets, but our experts say the best gains could be behind us. you want to listen, when we come back. >>> the nation's top ceos are at the white house to talk about jobs for our vet rarns returning from war. john harwood is at the white house with the ceo. ups. >> i'm here with scott davis of u.p.s. scott, let me ask you, the first lady said today that the corporate executives who are participating in this effort have exceeded the targets that she had set. u.p.s. has agreed to hire 25,000 veterans. tell me how difficult that is, why 25,000, and how this effort is going. >> i think the effort is going great. it's a worthy cause, the joining forces program is something that u.p.s. got behind from the get-go. veterans have spilled their guts for us, for this wonderful country, come

let's get to eamon javers, he's got the story. eamon?ng over the cftc is going on right now and they did tack on a discussion at the end of the day here to talk about that fake ap tweet about twitter. and the cftc meeting is going on right now. they haven't actually gotten around to talking about the twitter situation just yet. and i want to tell you the ironic reason, in part, why, and that's because they've been talking a lot about the flash crash events of may of 2010. and that should give you some sense about how long we might be talking about this ap twitter hack. i've been talking to some folks here in washington and i can tell you, maria, one of the things that regulators are focusing on right now is this question of whether whoever did this hack attack against the ap's twitter account did it in order to cause some disruption in the markets. if it was just vandalism and hacking, there might not be anything for regulators to do here in this case. if it was intended to cause market disruption, that could be market manipulation. that

eamon javers is in washington with details on that. eamon? >> hi, bill.s story is likely one of those that's going to get under the skin of anybody who paid their taxes last week. 24 current and former irs employees have been indicted for fraud. they're accused to have falsely saying that they were employed and getting benefits, allegedly obtaining over $250,000 in benefits. some of them allegedly obtained insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing vouchers. i'm told that these were employees in and around the memphis service center in tennessee. they'rw- and seasonal employees, and bill, i talked to the irs about this. they say that they hold their employees to the highest ethical standards and point out that they have over 90,000 employees at the irs. clearly, a group here now under intense scrutiny and we'll have to see how this one plays out. but 24 current and former irs employees indicted now for fraud. >> but did they pay taxes on those benefits that they got? >> that's one thing we'll have to check, michelle. >> thank you, eamon. >>> go

eamon javers has what it means for the government-controlled company. the. >> it's a pretty astonishing turnaround in washington, of course, we all remember it being the epicenter of the 2008 financial crisis. let me walk you through the details. the ceo of the company said the 2012 results were terrific, and said they represent a turning point for the company. came in the fourth quarter, fannie mae says it's paid taxpayers billions in dividends since 2008. the company now respects to remain profitable. that raises a big question, which is what happens to fannie mae and the sister company. they were put into conservatorship, now will the movement toward housing reform and replacing fannie and freddie, will that be stalled as a result of these profits sort of taking the urgency out of the debate, particularly because this is a town that is drowning in red ink. fannie mae, ironically may represent one of the rare patches of black ink in a town that's otherwise consumed by debt. >>> well, they certainly have a the lo of of other things they could put to th

eamon javers is in washington with the latest on those suspicious letters, possibly tainted with the . eamon? >> reporter: that's right, bill. a little bit of a jittery day up here on capitol hill. at one point, staffers got e-mails from the u.s. capitol police telling them to avoid the third floor of the hart senate office building, and at another point, this office behind me in the russell senate office building was actually closed down and a bomb squad came in to investigate a suspicious package here. a lot of nerves here, a lot of jitters in response to a letter to senator roger wickers office that tested positive in preliminary tests for the poison ricin. also today, the white house came out and said that indeed a letter had been found at the white house mail processing facility that was addressed to the president, that also tested positive in a preliminary test for ricin. so a lot of concern here about what might be going on here. at one point yesterday, a senator said that she and some of the law enforcement folks here were focusing on one particular person, who is known to sen

eamon javers with all the details for us. good evening. >> good evening, guys.se of alleged benefit fraud committed in an unusual situation here by a group of irs employees. here's what we know as of right now. 24 current or former irs employees have been indicted for fraud, and what they did here was allegedly obtain over $250,000 in federal benefits. some of them allegedly obtained insurance payments. food stamps, welfare and housing vouchers. i'm told that most of these employees were in and around the memphis service center of the irs. a lot of these folks were low level or seasonal employees of the irs, but nonetheless, what government officials are saying is that irs employees know what they are supposed to do and what they are not supposed to do and what they say is allegedly doing is stealing these benefits, benefits that should have been going to people who deserve them, not people who are full-time or even part-time jobs. guys? >> eamon, this is an incredible story. just real quick, what happens next? no good. he's gone. >> well, the question is did th

over to eamon javers. >>> a new development in the political intelligence agency here in washington.r that story from earlier in the month in which a political firm near d.c. called height securities sent an e-mail tip to a number of its wall street trading clients, advising them of some changes in the medicare program. those firms, in turn, traded on that tip. well, now we've got a development in the story, in the case of greenberg troug. they had a partner or lawyer there who was involved in the chain of communications here of this information. they are now saying they're getting out of the business of political intelligence altogether in the back of this situation. let me read you the statement here. they say, we have concluded that providing government relation services to an entity in the political intelligence area may lead to misunderstanding and unintended use of those services, even when compliant with legal and ethical standards. height is no longer a client and we will not represent such figures in the future. maria, there's no indication that greenberg traugig or height s

eamon javers has details for us. eamonn? >> hi, bill.ake tweet said that there had been, in fact, explosions at the white house and that barack obama was injured in those explosions. that fake and erroneous tweet went out at about 1:07 p.m. and shortly thereafter, at about 1:16 p.m., the associated press reporter at the white house had the chance to make a little news of her own. that's because the white house briefing was coincidentally scheduled at that time and the associated press traditionally gets to ask the first question. in this case, it was ap reporter julie pace who had a chance to clear up some of the confusion arou surrounding this incident. >> i want to say at the top that it appears as though ap's twitter account has been hacked, so anything that was just sent out about any incident at the white house is absolutely false and we'll be putting out something today shortly to clarify if that hasn't happened already. >> and the president is fine. i was just with him. >> and that is not something you see every day. the white hou

right to eamon javers. >> the s.e.c. has issued an interesting ruling on social media. the s.e.c.g in a press release just a few minutes ago that it is okay for companies to use social media sites like facebook and twitter to announce company information, but they have to let investors know which sites they're going to be using to disseminate that information. now, this ruling has an interesting back story here. it comes in the wake of a facebook posting by the ceo netflix, who posted some information to his personal facebook page about the company. that information was not included in a press release or an 8k for investors. it affected the company's stock price and the question then became, when it is okay for company officials to use social media like twitter and facebook to release this information? the s.e.c. now saying, it is okay to use those venues. but they've got to let some investors know when they're going to be posting that stuff before they post it. and that way everybody knows where to look for the new details, maria. >> very interesting. >> yes, it's interesting, bu

. >> eamon javers joins us from washington. over the weekend and donohoe was emailing 40 million ebay users trying to get them revved up about it and obviously there's a lot of political heat around this potential vote. >> any time you can deliver grassroots mobile situation it helps here in washington and simon, you know a lot of stuff, but i guess there's one thing that you don't know and that is when you buy something on ebay or amazon or any one of these online retailers, you're supposed to pay the sales tax on it and you're supposed to keep track of it yourself and figure out what it is and pay it at the end of the year. most folks don't know that and most taxpayers don't pay that tax and retailers for years have been extraordinairily upset and this gives folks an unfair advantage. now they have a vote in the senate and what this bill would do is they would allow states to force retailers to collect those sales taxes even if the sales tax -- even if the sales were done online and they'll vote on this at 5:30 this afternoon

eamon javers is here this morning. >> good morning.ess ees as we speak. it is being printed just a couple of blocks from here in the bureau in washington. the president will not release the budget formally until wednesday, but we're getting an early look at the hard bound copies and it makious wonder why they print up the old-fashioned hard cover copies, but they're doing it today and we'll get a look at what the president says on wednesday, but we know the details of what's in there including a potential proposal by the president of what they call chain cpi which is a limit on social security payouts to beneficiaries there. that's something that has gotten at least some republicans to say they're at least encouraged by what the president is offered here and it's making liberals very nervous. lindsay graham, the republican senator who might be key to a big-bargain deal said on "meet the press" saying barack obama is showing a little leg here with this budget proposal. carl, we're watching these coming off the press and we'll get a look

eamon javers will explain.t of money at fannie mae $17.5 million. >> all of a sudden, a big turnaround story at fannie mae and they have back years of tax losses, but they're not going to take that even though it will be profitable here for the foreseeable future and let me walk you through what the company said in its call. the 2012 results were terrific and that they were a turning point for the company annual net 7.6 billion just in the first quarter and they've paid back $20 ooh on it expects to remain profitable here for the foreseeable future and they said on this call that this is an indication that the housing recovery is well under way and all of these good results for fannie mae raise a question which is what is congress going do about the gses and the federal involvement in the housing market. there was some concern raised by fannie mae on this call that the ironic result here could be that because of the good result, congress may actually slow down its efforts at some kind of housing reform legislat

are now investigating and cnbc's eamon javers is in washington with the latest. what's going on with this? >> good morning, andrew. it was a bizarre couple of minutes yesterday in washington and on wall street. it began about 1:07 p.m. here's the fake tweet posted to the ap twitter feed. breaking. two explosions in the white house and barack obama was injured. look at what it did to the dow jones. down 143 points and back up again in the space of just about three minutes. a lot of this attributed to automatic trading augu. a few minutes later the white house briefing was set to begin and by tradition ap reporter gets the first question and in this case she took the opportunity to clear up the situation explaining to the rest of the media folks watching just what had gone on. take a listen. >> i just want to say at the top that it appears as though ap's twitter account has been hacked so anything that was just sent out about any incident at the white house is obviously false and we'll put out something shortly. >> i appreciate that. i can say that the president is